


New Moon Princess

by Ophelia_Fallen



Category: InuYasha - A Feudal Fairy Tale
Genre: F/M, Political Intrigue, Pre-Canon, Romance, Sengoku Jidai, warfare
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-06
Updated: 2020-06-12
Packaged: 2021-03-03 19:49:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,613
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24581098
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ophelia_Fallen/pseuds/Ophelia_Fallen
Summary: Izayoi's father has made a deal with a dragon to keep their family safe from the impeding wars, with a cost much higher than any noble could afford. When the debt cannot be paid back, Izayoi's life is turned upside down and she is forced to leave behind everything she knew- bringing only her two most loyal retainers with her to escape the curse which has been placed on to her family.
Relationships: Inu no Taishou/Izayoi, OC/OC
Kudos: 4





	1. Prologue

Prologue

Izayoi was awoken by the early morning star shining over the castle. She opted for a light pink yukata with red butterflies and allowed her handmaidens to tie her long obsidian hair into a ponytail. After being finished with her morning routine, the solemn, yet graceful noblewoman quietly moved down the castle corridors and stopped only to bow down to her father, Hyosuke, who was already dressed in his dark armor. 

The daimyo smiled through his red Oni-menpo. “Izayoi, it’s great to see your beautiful face out here. You are the jewel of this castle.” 

“You say that to me every morning, father.” Izayoi said with a giggle. “Truth be told, I’m glad we’re all the way up here … otherwise, we’d get caught in the middle of the territorial disputes.” Her smile faded into a frown. Ever since the bitter rivalry of the Hosokawa and Yamana clans kicked off a war which ended only three years ago, Izayoi spent many sleepless nights wondering if the instability would catch up with her family. 

“You needn’t worry about those silly disputes, my dear. They will settle down once the Emperor set his foot down and tells the Shogunate to enforce the territory laws.” Hyosuke said, with a firm grip on the handle of his naginata. 

“I hope you’re right.” Izayoi gazed at the tranquil landscape before them. “Father?”

He looked down at her with a benevolent smile. “Yes, my dear?”

Izayoi took a deep breath, unsure of how Hyosuke would react to her inquiry. “Will I be allowed to leave the castle premises to explore the forest? I’ll make sure to bring Takemaru and Tatsuo with me for protection.”

The silence between them made Izayoi nervous; would he become infuriated for suggesting such a thing? Her elder sisters disappeared without a trace three years earlier, after Hyosuke relocated the family to their current estate. Surely, he wouldn’t want to lose sight of Izayoi.

“Hmm… well if you promise to stay by their side, then I will grant you permission. Just make sure you don’t wander away from them.” His compliance surprised Izayoi. 

She jumped up and embraced him tightly. “Thank you!” 

“I understand how much you love looking at the scenery. What kind of father would I be if I were to make you live the life of a caged bird?” he smiled. “Now go get your retainers. Tell them it is imperative to protect you with their lives.”

Izayoi nodded and bowed her head before rushing to the courtyard, calling out Tatsuo’s name without a response, even though it was relatively empty compared to most castles. “Tatsuo, where are you?” her voice echoed through the courtyard until she reached the gates, where a young samurai was leaning against the wall with his eyes closed. He wore dark blue armor over his black kosode and hakama. 

Izayoi approached him and tugged at his long braid, watching him flinch from being woken up. “Eh?! I promise, I wasn’t sleeping on the job.” He said, calming down only when he realized it was Izayoi. “Oh, why fancy seeing you out here Izayoi. Nice day, isn’t it?”

“Would the patriarch of the Kaneda clan be so kind as to accompany me while I look around the forest? We’re only going to the waterfalls.” Izayoi asked whimsically. 

“Sure, why not? Is your father alright with it?” Tatsuo was no stranger to Hyosuke’s wrath- having been on the receiving end of roaring lectures over perceived minor mistakes. 

Izayoi nodded. “He said it was alright so long as I bring you and Takemaru with me.”

Tatsuo placed his hands on his hips and smirked. “What are we waiting for, let’s go find Takemaru!” It always impressed Izayoi to see Tatsuo spring to life shortly after being woken up from his any sort of slumber. 

The duo searched through the courtyard and the interior of the castle in their search for Setsuna Takemaru, without any luck. It wasn’t until Tatsuo resigned to the stables to tack up his horse did, they find Takemaru. 

To Izayoi’s surprise, Takemaru was asleep on top of his horse. The mare did not seem to mind Takemaru leaning against her mane until Tatsuo picked up a small pebble and pelted Takemaru’s face with it.

“Wake up you lazy cretin!” Tatsuo shouted, watching Takemaru scramble to sit up straight.

“Augh, that hurts! Aw geeze, did you really need to do that?” Takemaru gave Tatsuo a piercing glare as he straightened out his helmet and allowed his horse to approach the duo. 

Tatsuo tapped his foot. “We don’t have all day to laze around, the Lady Izayoi would like to get out of here for a little bit with us.” He glanced over to Izayoi. “Where are we going again?”

“How about to the waterfalls? I love the sight of them.” Izayoi said. “It’s getting really warm today, so I figured you two would appreciate the clean water from there.”

Takemaru hopped off his mare and bowed his head to her. “Ah, Lady Izayoi why don’t you get on my horse?”

Izayoi’s face turned crimson. “Are you sure? I’ve never ridden a horse before. Plus, you’ll be walking.”

“It’s alright, I don’t want you to get your clothes dirtied by the ground below.”

Tatsuo rolled his eyes as he went to grab his horse. “Ugh, why don’t we just get her one of the older horses so that none of us are walking?”

Takemaru clenched his fist and hissed at Tatsuo. “Mind your own business Tatsuo!” Tatsuo puffed up his chest and cracked his knuckles, ready to challenge Takemaru until Izayoi got between them 

“Why must you two always quarrel like this? I’d rather you two didn’t.” 

Izayoi’s pleading dark eyes brought out the remorseful side of Takemaru. “I’m sorry, Lady Izayoi!”

Tatsuo bowed his head apologetically. “As am I! At the end of the day, we are passionate men who are dedicated to protecting you even if it leads to disagreements.”

Izayoi nodded her head. “I’m glad about that part.”

Once Tatsuo returned with his horse, they left the castle grounds and headed for the dense, lush ethereal forest beyond the walls. Izayoi leaned a little forward, taking in the fresh air and listened for the music of the waterfalls that she’d faintly hear before falling asleep every night after calming her worries. 

The shaded forest made the journey much more pleasant for Izayoi, she hated it when the sunlight would glare on her face. She listened to the choir of birds with the rhythm of horse hooves marching on the worn down road. 

When they finally reached the waterfall, Izayoi hopped off Takemaru’s horse and ran towards the waterfall. “Wow, it’s beautiful.” She dipped her hand in, watching as the friendly carp fish approached her with curiosity.

Tatsuo arched his brow and folded his arms. “Huh, you think so?” he hopped off his horse and took a step back, staring at the waterfall. 

Takemaru allowed his mare to drink from the pond. “I’m inclined to agree with the Lady Izayoi; it is a lovely sight to behold.” He added, “how could you not agree with that sentiment?”

The serene tranquility could not last forever as the horses rose their heads and reared. “Whoa there!” Takemaru shouted as he grabbed his horse’s reins. Tatsuo stroked his horse’s muzzle and spoke to his mare in a reassuring soothing voice.

Izayoi stood up. “I wonder what’s upsetting them.” 

A pale dragon emerged from the water as Izayoi and glared at her. It opened its mouth and it started lighting up as it prepared to attack her. “Watch out!” Takemaru shouted, unsheathing his katana, and rushed towards the dragon. 

Tatsuo reached for his Yumi and shot two arrows at the dragon, landing one in its eye. Takemaru managed to cut one of the dragon’s arms off before it focused all its rage towards the samurai. “Run, Lady Izayoi!” he shouted as he ran to Tatsuo’s side. 

Izayoi nodded and ran as quickly as she could away from the waterfall while cursing herself for leaving her only two friends behind. On one hand, she was confident in their skills- but on the other hand, they were only human.

Tears fell down her cheeks as soon as she was far enough away from the waterfall that she allowed herself to rest against a tree. ‘They’re only human!’ she continued to curse to herself as she saw a bright light in the distance. ‘It’s my fault that this happened!’

Before she had time to react, the wounded dragon flew towards her with a back impaled by arrows with oozing gashes throughout its body. She hid deeper in the forest, hoping that the darkness brought upon by the trees would shield her from the dragon’s sights. 

The dragon fired off a beam of light that knocked a tree over, forcing her to come face to face with the monster standing before her. ‘Is this how I’m going to die?’ Resigning herself to death, she squeezed her eyes shut. Within seconds half of its head severed by a mysterious warrior on a white horse. Flames surrounded the dragon’s body, revealing the body of a young boy once the blaze died down.

The warrior’s horse landed in front of Izayoi, nickering as the warrior gazed at her. He wore armor over his white hakama and had a layered pauldron on each side of his shoulder. Judging by his silver hair tied in a high ponytail, pointed ears, and jagged stripes on his face, Izayoi immediately knew he wasn’t human.

“Are you alright?” he asked as his fire horse pawed at the earth below. 

Izayoi bowed her head in gratitude. “Yes, thank you.”

She then rose her head and turned around upon hearing Takemaru’s voice. “Lady Izayoi!” Takemaru and Tatsuo rushed towards her on horseback, with their blade covered in blood from the dragon. Their armor was damaged, but Izayoi was happy to see them alive all the same. 

Tatsuo stopped once he caught up with Izayoi and started panting. “Oh gods, you scared me back there I thought you were a goner!” 

“It’s alright, I was saved thanks to…” Izayoi turned around and saw that the mysterious man had disappeared without her noticing. “Hm? Where did he go?”

She glanced over to her left and saw the man flying away on his white horse, flames surrounding the horse’s hooves as they glided through the skies. “I guess I’ll repay him when I see him again.” She whispered to herself, trying to store the memory of the man in her mind. Yokai or not, he was a gallant hero in her eyes.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I find the idea of Entei once being Inu No Taisho’s horse to be really cool, so I’m going with that head canon here.


	2. Ryukotsusei

Tatsuo was sitting on the roof of the castle, taking in the midsummer breeze with a blade of grass in his mouth. His helmet was placed next to him. Ever since he figured out how to jump from the watchtower onto the castle roof, he often came here whenever he wanted to be alone with his thoughts. 

The silence did not last long. “Hey, Tatsuo!” Takemaru shouted from the watchtower. “You mind coming back here?”

“Give me a second.” Tatsuo swung his braid back from his shoulders and put the helmet back on. He was careful to not be spotted by the other guards in the castle. He joined Takemaru in the watch tower and gazed over the endless landscape of forests.

Takemaru scowled and slapped the back of Tatsuo’s head. “I do not want us to get yelled at again for not doing our jobs. You’re lucky it was me who was assigned here with you and not Susumu.”

With a frown, Tatsuo readjusted his helmet and grabbed his Yumi which was resting against the wooden railing. “What difference does it make now? Lord Hyosuke has been furious with us all week.” He paused thoughtfully. “Do you think we should try to calm the waters with him, let him know how powerful that dragon was?”

“No, he’ll just think we’re making excuses. We’re better off waiting until he’s calmed down- at least then he’ll be easier to reason with.” Takemaru replied while shaking his head. 

With a heavy sigh, Tatsuo leaned forward and gazed down at the castle walls. “Yeah, I suppose you’re right.” He rested a hand against his cheek. “Do you think it gets boring around here?”

Takemaru furrowed his brow and crossed his arms. “What on earth are you talking about? I think that we carry the highest honor in all of the land to be of service to Izayoi.” There was a spark of pride that came with Takemaru’s tone of voice. Tatsuo figured Takemaru to be biased in that regard- he only spoke highly of their position due to having been friends with Izayoi since their childhood years. The moment Takemaru started asking him for advice as to how to approach Izayoi with romantic intention was when Tatsuo realized that the admiration for the noblewoman went far deeper than a cherished friendship. 

“Maybe it’s my love for battle talking, but I find it a little too quiet here. We never have anyone trying to invade this castle nor has anyone sent as much as a threat to us.” It wasn’t a lie- in all twenty one years of Tatsuo’s life, he realized that he never liked staying in one place for too long. 

“So, the rumours about the Kanedas are true then.” Takemaru replied with a chuckle. 

“Hah, you can say that again. Unfortunately, it’s our love for battle that forced me to take this job to recoup the losses caused by my father.”

Takemaru placed a hand on his hip with a brow raised. “How so?”

“Let’s just say that my father picked a fight with the wrong Daimyo and we pretty much lost everything except for our back up fortress… so now I have to work here and send my earnings over to him so that he can rebuild his military.” Tatsuo scratched the back of his head. “Which is why I’m the unofficial patriarch of the Kaneda clan. Well, that and it’s because all my little brothers haven’t lived past their first decade yet.”

To Tatsuo’s surprise, Takemaru placed a hand on his shoulder. “Well, I hope you’re successful in the long run.”

A gentle breeze brushed past the samurai, with nothing but complete silence throughout the castle. Takemaru watched the sky as it went from being a deep shade of cerulean to grey within seconds. At first, Takemaru and Tatsuo brushed it off as an incoming sudden rainfall.

Just when Tatsuo was ready to shelter himself from the incoming rainfall, bursts of lightening stabbed through the courtyard and instantly incinerated guards that were struck. “What the hell?!” Tatsuo shouted, staring at the charred corpses. 

It was then Takemaru grabbed his sleeve. “Let’s go check on Lady Izayoi!” He shouted, hopping out from the tower, and landed gracefully on the ground. Tatsuo did the same and rushed with Takemaru into the castle corridors, only barely managing to evade the lightening along the way as it kept striking the courtyard at random. 

Tatsuo watched in horror as their watchtower was hit; had they stood in there for a second longer, there was no doubt in his mind that they’d share the same fate with their fellow samurai. 

The dragon’s red orbs glared at Hyosuke, who was quivering with fear. “Lord Ryukotsusei, it is an honor to see you here. Is there anything I can help you with?” Not even the most hardened samurai would be able to maintain his composure before Ryukotsusei. 

Takemaru kept his distance from the scene and restrained Izayoi. “Don’t get too close, My Lady.” He whispered after looking over the walls now reduced to rubble and debris. “That is a Daiyoukai… neither Tatsuo nor I would stand a chance in hell of repelling him.”

They both called out Izayoi’s name in unison, shoving past noblewomen as they searched for her throughout the endless corridors within the castle. Neither of them stopped until they heard the faint call of Izayoi, calling out for them.

Within moments, she ran over towards Takemaru and Tatsuo. “Thank goodness you’re both alright! What’s going on?!” she asked, lifting the hem of her gown. There was both fear and confusion written all over her face. “The guards in the courtyard have all been struck by lightening… how?”

The three of them looked out one of the windows to behold the sight of the purple scaled serpentine body floating in the skies. Wide eyed and bewildered Izayoi placed a hand over her mouth to stop herself from screaming at the sight of the monstrous Daiyoukai. 

\------

Hyosuke stood on the stairs of the castle with a cold sweat going down his face as he watched the dragon lower its head to reveal the imbedded face on its forehead to the Daimyo. The white face on the forehead had an expression which held nothing but contempt towards Hyosuke. “Lord Ryukotsusei, I wasn’t expecting your arrival so soon.” Hyosuke trembled with every word. 

Then, the dragon spoke, “I have sheltered your family from the war for over a decade, and this is how you repay me? I am quite disappointed in you.” Suddenly, a rotting corpse of the slain boy who was once the dragon Yokai in the waterfalls appeared before Hyosuke. “May I remind you that you have yet to pay back the debt which you owe me for my generosity. What were your men hoping to gain from his death?

“My Lord, I had nothing to do with this!” Hyosuke shouted. 

“Father!”

Hyosuke’s heart froze as he heard his daughter’s voice call out to him. He turned to his right, watching Izayoi approach him. “Father, you must take refuge inside until the dragon goes away.” She said. “Come on.” 

The Daimyo remained silent as she continued to plead him to come indoors. “You don’t stand a chance against the dragon! Stop being so stubborn and get inside.”

Ryukotsusei laughed. “It seems as though your daughter is much wiser than you are, Hyosuke.” A shudder was sent down Izayoi’s spine.

“Go back inside!” Hyosuke shouted as he tried to shove Izayoi away from the scene, but it proved useless as she stepped forward instead. “What are you doing?”

Izayoi stared at the white face embedded on Ryukotsusei’s forehead and then took a deep breath before she dared to utter a word. “I know you’re capable of human speech, so I’d like to know what is that you want from us. We may seem affluent, but we have nothing that could possibly interest a Daiyoukai such as yourself.” She remained in place even as she could feel the dragon’s hot breath breeze past her. Her eyes then wandered down the stairs, where she saw the limp corpse of the dragon child whom she encountered only a few days ago. 

“Your life will be sufficient enough to pay off the debt Hyosuke owes to me.” A blue light appeared from Ryukotsusei’s mouth. Before Izayoi had time to react, she was shoved aside by Hyosuke and went rolling down the stairs. 

The ground shook as soon as Ryukotsusei release his power and left a crater where the stairs once stood. Izayoi had a hand on her foot, swollen from the fall. She brushed the dirt from her torn pink yukata and looked up. Her breath ceased momentarily as she saw a charred corpse standing where the stairs used to be, with a skull being the only thing left of Hyosuke’s face. 

“Father!” Izayoi screamed as rivers streamed down her face. She knew he couldn’t return her call, yet she kept screaming upon witnessing the nightmare. 

Ryukotsusei turned his head towards Izayoi, glaring through the dragon’s red orbs. “You Unclean ones are the roots of evil! I will not tolerate your existence any longer.” Instead of laying there while the blue light appeared once more, Izayoi took off her sandals and sprinted away. She gritted her teeth to try to ignore the pain from her ankle, only allowing herself to stumble once as Ryukotsusei missed his shot at her. 

The crater in the courtyard was all the grim reminders she needed to keep going. Tears washed away her makeup as she kept mindlessly evading every shot from Ryukotsusei- his slow shots were the only thing that worked to her advantage. 

In the middle of another round of evasion, Izayoi tripped over one of the many corpses that once guarded her life. Just when she started to lose hope, four arrows flew above Izayoi and penetrated Ryukotsusei’s eyes. She briefly heard the hoof beats of Tatsuo’s horse before he yanked her from the ground and hastily helped her get on the saddle of his grey mare. 

“Are you alright?” He asked, only briefly taking note of her nodding. 

Ryukotsusei roared, blood trickling down his face while Takemaru’s horse made its way up the serpentine body. The samurai’s naginata dug into the white face embedded on Ryukotsusei’s forehead, causing the dragon to collapse. “Serves you right, Yokai scum!” Takemaru shouted as he pulled his naginata out of the dragon and then went to catch up with Tatsuo. 

It was only for a moment that Ryukotsusei was out cold and when he rose his head from the earth, he watched the two riders take off with Izayoi in the distance. He saw Izayoi briefly look down at the ruined courtyard before the enraged dragon took it upon himself to destroy the remaining castle. “Lady Izayoi, look upon the ruins of your father’s legacy. The Unclean ones such as he is unworthy of walking the same earth as us Daiyoukai.”

**Author's Note:**

> So, Tatsuo is the ancestor of a certain character. Can any of you guys figure out who he's related to in this context?
> 
> I know I said in my previous work that I wasn't going to get around to doing this, but I couldn't resist. I've always loved the concept of IzayoixToga (AKA InuTaisho) so I decided to give it a shot.


End file.
